History

Although Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot is often credited with building the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in about 1769 by adapting an existing horse-drawn vehicle, this claim is disputed by some, who doubt Cugnot's three-wheeler ever ran or was stable. Others claim Ferdinand Verbiest, a member of a Jesuit mission in China, built the first steam-powered vehicle around 1672 which was of small scale and designed as a toy for the Chinese Emperor that was unable to carry a driver or a passenger, but quite possibly, was the first working steam-powered vehicle ('auto-mobile'). What is not in doubt is that Richard Trevithick built and demonstrated his Puffing Devil road locomotive in 1801, believed by many to be the first demonstration of a steam-powered road vehicle although it was unable to maintain sufficient steam pressure for long periods, and would have been of little practical use.
In Russia, in the 1780s, Ivan Kulibin developed a human-pedalled, three-wheeled carriage with modern features such as a flywheel, brake, gear box, and bearings; however, it was not developed further.
François Isaac de Rivaz, a Swiss inventor, designed the first internal combustion engine, in 1806, which was fueled by a mixture of hydrogenand oxygen and used it to develop the world's first vehicle, albeit rudimentary, to be powered by such an engine. The design was not very successful, as was the case with others such as Samuel Brown, Samuel Morey, and Etienne Lenoir with his hippomobile, who each produced vehicles (usually adapted carriages or carts) powered by clumsy internal combustion engines.
In November 1881 French inventor Gustave Trouvé demonstrated a working three-wheeled automobile that was powered by electricity. This was at the International Exhibition of Electricity in Paris.
Although several other German engineers (including Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach, and Siegfried Marcus) were working on the problem at about the same time, Karl Benz generally is acknowledged as the inventor of the modern automobile.
An automobile powered by his own four-stroke cycle gasoline engine was built in Mannheim, Germany by Karl Benz in 1885 and granted apatent in January of the following year under the auspices of his major company, Benz & Cie., which was founded in 1883. It was an integraldesign, without the adaptation of other existing components and including several new technological elements to create a new concept. This is what made it worthy of a patent. He began to sell his production vehicles in 1888.


Karl Benz


A photograph of the originalBenz Patent Motorwagen, first built in 1885 and awarded the patent for the concept
In 1879 Benz was granted a patent for his first engine, which had been designed in 1878. Many of his other inventions made the use of the internal combustion engine feasible for powering a vehicle.
His first Motorwagen was built in 1885 and he was awarded the patent for its invention as of his application on January 29, 1886. Benz began promotion of the vehicle on July 3, 1886 and approximately 25 Benz vehicles were sold between 1888 and 1893, when his first four-wheeler was introduced along with a model intended for affordability. They also were powered with four-stroke engines of his own design. Emile Roger of France, already producing Benz engines under license, now added the Benz automobile to his line of products. Because France was more open to the early automobiles, initially more were built and sold in France through Roger than Benz sold in Germany.
In 1896, Benz designed and patented the first internal-combustion flat engine, called a boxermotor in German. During the last years of the nineteenth century, Benz was the largest automobile company in the world with 572 units produced in 1899 and because of its size, Benz & Cie., became a joint-stock company.
Daimler and Maybach founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (Daimler Motor Company, DMG) in Cannstatt in 1890 and under the brand name,Daimler, sold their first automobile in 1892, which was a horse-drawn stagecoach built by another manufacturer, that they retrofitted with an engine of their design. By 1895 about 30 vehicles had been built by Daimler and Maybach, either at the Daimler works or in the Hotel Hermann, where they set up shop after falling out with their backers. Benz and the Maybach and Daimler team seem to have been unaware of each other's early work. They never worked together because by the time of the merger of the two companies, Daimler and Maybach were no longer part of DMG.
Daimler died in 1900 and later that year, Maybach designed an engine named Daimler-Mercedes, that was placed in a specially-ordered model built to specifications set by Emil Jellinek. This was a production of a small number of vehicles for Jellinek to race and market in his country. Two years later, in 1902, a new model DMG automobile was produced and the model was named Mercedes after the Maybach engine which generated 35 hp. Maybach quit DMG shortly thereafter and opened a business of his own. Rights to the Daimler brand name were sold to other manufacturers.
Karl Benz proposed co-operation between DMG and Benz & Cie. when economic conditions began to deteriorate in Germany following the First World War, but the directors of DMG refused to consider it initially. Negotiations between the two companies resumed several years later when these conditions worsened and, in 1924 they signed an Agreement of Mutual Interest, valid until the year 2000. Both enterprises standardized design, production, purchasing, and sales and they advertised or marketed their automobile models jointly—although keeping their respective brands.
On June 28, 1926, Benz & Cie. and DMG finally merged as the Daimler-Benz company, baptizing all of its automobiles Mercedes Benz as a brand honoring the most important model of the DMG automobiles, the Maybach design later referred to as the 1902 Mercedes-35hp, along with the Benz name. Karl Benz remained a member of the board of directors of Daimler-Benz until his death in 1929 and at times, his two sons participated in the management of the company as well.
In 1890, Emile Levassor and Armand Peugeot of France began producing vehicles with Daimler engines and so laid the foundation of the automobile industry in France.
The first design for an American automobile with a gasoline internal combustion engine was drawn in 1877 by George Selden of Rochester, New York, who applied for a patent for an automobile in 1879, but the patent application expired because the vehicle was never built and proved to work (a requirement for a patent). After a delay of sixteen years and a series of attachments to his application, on November 5, 1895, Selden was granted a United States patent (U.S. Patent 549,160 ) for a two-stroke automobile engine, which hindered, more than encouraged, development of automobiles in the United States. His patent was challenged by Henry Ford and others, and overturned in 1911.
In Britain there had been several attempts to build steam cars with varying degrees of success with Thomas Rickett even attempting a production run in 1860. Santler from Malvern is recognized by the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain as having made the first petrol-powered car in the country in 1894 followed by Frederick William Lanchester in 1895 but these were both one-offs.The first production vehicles in Great Britain came from the Daimler Motor Company, a company founded by Harry J. Lawson in 1896 after purchasing the right to use the name of the engines. Lawson's company made its first automobiles in 1897 and they bore the name Daimler.
In 1892, German engineer Rudolf Diesel was granted a patent for a "New Rational Combustion Engine". In 1897 he built the first Diesel Engine. Steam-, electric-, and gasoline-powered vehicles competed for decades, with gasoline internal combustion engines achieving dominance in the 1910s.
Although various pistonless rotary engine designs have attempted to compete with the conventional piston and crankshaft design, only Mazda's version of the Wankel engine has had more than very limited success.

Mitsubishi vehicle production in Europe

Mitsubishi vehicle production in Europe
Start of production of the Outlander in Born, Netherlands

* Strategy: even utilization of Mitsubishi car plants
* Planned volume: 30,000 units of the Mitsubishi SUV per year
* Market situation: consistently strong demand in Europe

Hattersheim, 28 August 2008. Eighteen months after the European debut of the new generation Outlander model in the spring of 2007 opens another chapter in the success story of the sporty SUV model: With the official ceremony started today the production in Europe Mitsubishi NedCar plant in Born, Netherlands.
The final preparations were running since September 2007, on 13 May 2008 started the pre-production and 1 August 2008 the regular production. Prominent guests at the opening ceremony on Thursday, the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs Maria van der Hoeven and other government representatives. The host platform Osamu Matsumoto, director production of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, Tim Tozer, president and CEO of Mitsubishi Motors Europe BV (MME) and Joost Govaarts, President and COO of the NedCar plant.

According to tradition, one Outlander was donated to the "Bio-Kinderrevalidatie", which is a facility for mentally disabled children and operates in the past year a research and treatment facility in operation. Osamu Matsumoto and Joost Govaarts turned over the vehicle to the foundation's director Maarten Elsenburg.
NedCar: 30,000 per year Mitsubishi Outlander
The assembly of the Mitsubishi Outlander with Japan-made for European markets * specified module kits made with a capacity of 130 units per day and shift on a separate line in the hall of the production is no longer produced model Mitsubishi Space Star. Starting with this year ** is on the entire model cycle of the vehicle an average annual production of 30,000 units. The worldwide production of the Mitsubishi Outlander would be - along with 150,000 units from a full-capacity plant in Okazaki, Japan - a volume of 180,000 units per year.

With regard to economic production and a solid refinancing is staffed with 600 employees Outlander production at NedCar on optimal use of existing facilities designed to model changes had only been in body welding and final assembly plant and logistics are made, in addition, side parts of the body in NedCar's own stamping plant.

From a European manufacturing are only the first of PSA Peugeot / Citroen (2.2 DI-D) and Volkswagen (2.0 DI-D) delivered diesel engines and components of the aforementioned body outer skin; in the further course, however, the order volume of local Suppliers increased.

Successful management
The reason for the relocation - as Mitsubishi, 18 September 2007 announced - a uniform utilization of Mitsubishi car works *** without any possible bottlenecks due to the high demand for the Outlander in Europe and worldwide and also strongly demanded new-generation Lancer.

How successful the Mitsubishi Outlander, with its combination of attractive design, driving dynamics, space, variability and low consumption and CO2 emission levels and the brand known for the low price-value ratio in Europe, shows the sales statistics:

Middle-class SUV (January-May 20081) in Europe: 268,291 units sold (+ 8.3% vs. 247,784 units from January to May 20071):

* # 1: Volkswagen Tiguan
32,787 units (new)
* # 2: Toyota RAV4
Vs. 31,645. 44,860 units (- 29.5%)
* # 3: Honda CR-V
Vs. 29,177. 32,170 units (- 9.3%)
* # 4: BMW X3
Vs. 23,782. 28,717 units (- 17.2%)
* # 5: Suzuki Grand Vitara
Vs. 18,646. 25,271 units (-26.2%)
* # 6: Land Rover Freelander
Vs. 16,880. 16,647 units (+ 1.4%)
* # 7: Mitsubishi Outlander (new)
Vs. 15,271. 11,435 units (+ 33.5%)
* # 8: Nissan X-Trail
Vs. 13,810. 10,605 units (+ 30.2%)
* # 9: Chevrolet Captiva
Vs. 12,726. 13,049 units (- 2.5%)
* # 10: Hyundai Santa Fe
Vs. 11,349. 19,471 units (- 41.7%)

Sale rate increase of Mitsubishi Outlander in Europe: 75%

1) Source: Jato Dynamics (20 European countries)
Mitsubishi Outlander sales within the territory of MME paragraph (34 countries): 17,085 (Jan. - May 2008) vs. 12,007 units (Jan. - May 2007): +42,3%

NedCar: high quality and flexibility
In one for the automotive industry difficult business climate is the relocation of the Outlander for the European markets to NedCar a vote of confidence in the quality and flexibility of the plant as well as a further demonstration of the efforts of Mitsubishi, the efficiency of its global production *** continually improve.

By avoid potential production bottlenecks and sales loss of Mitsubishi Motors Europe and more than 30 national distribution companies, the desired and required sales volume of a model that is excellent throughout Europe adopted - aptly in a moment that the market for compact and mid-sized crossover SUV Tends models.

* In addition to Russia, Ukraine, Norway, Switzerland, Israel, Iceland, Macedonia and Croatia, the supplies from Japan.
** NedCar total production volume per year: 65,000 ± Colt + 30,000 Outlander
*** Mitsubishi utilization of production facilities worldwide: (financial year 2004: 62%, fiscal year 2007: 92%).

ECONOMICS AND IMPACTS

ECONOMICS AND IMPACTS

Cost and benefits of usage
The costs of automobile usage, which may include the cost of: acquiring the vehicle, repairs,maintenance, fuel, depreciation, parking fees, tire replacement, taxes and insurance,are weighed against the cost of the alternatives, and the value of the benefits - perceived and real - of vehicle usage. The benefits may include on-demand transportation, mobility, independence and convenience.


Cost and benefits to society
Similarly the costs to society of encompassing automobile use, which may include those of:maintaining roads, land use, pollution, public health, health care, and of disposing of the vehicle at the end of its life, can be balanced against the value of the benefits to society that automobile use generates. The societal benefits may include: economy benefits, such as job and wealth creation, of automobile production and maintenance, transportation provision, society wellbeing derived from leisure and travel opportunities, and revenue generation from the tax opportunities. The ability for humans to move flexibly from place to place has far reaching implications for the nature of societies. 


Impacts on society and environment
Transportation is a major contributor to air pollution in most industrialised nations. According to the American Surface Transportation Policy Project nearly half of all Americans are breathing unhealthy air. Their study showed air quality in dozens of metropolitan areas has got worse over the last decade.In the United States the average passenger car emits 11,450 lbs (5 tonnes) of carbon dioxide, along with smaller amounts of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen. Residents of low-density, residential-only sprawling communities are also more likely to die in car collisions, which kill 1.2 million people worldwide each year, and injure about forty times this number. Sprawl is more broadly a factor in inactivity and obesity, which in turn can lead to increased risk of a variety of diseases.


Improving the positive and reducing the negative impacts
Fuel taxes may act as an incentive for the production of more efficient, hence less polluting, car designs (e.g. hybrid vehicles) and the development of alternative fuels. High fuel taxes may provide a strong incentive for consumers to purchase lighter, smaller, more fuel-efficient cars, or to not drive. On average, today's automobiles are about 75 percent recyclable, and using recycled steel helps reduce energy use and pollution. In the United States Congress, federally mandated fuel efficiency standards have been debated regularly, passenger car standards have not risen above the 27.5 mpg–U.S. (8.55 L/100 km / 33 mpg–imp) standard set in 1985. Light truck standards have changed more frequently, and were set at 22.2 mpg–U.S. (10.6 L/100 km / 26.7 mpg–imp) in 2007.Alternative fuel vehicles are another option that is less polluting than conventional petroleum powered vehicles.

BMW Z9 Gran Turismo 2009, Open Doors

BMW Z9 Gran Turismo 2009, Open Doors

The BMW Z9 Convertible made its UK debut at the British International Motor Show (October 18 - 29) less than 3 weeks after its world debut in Paris.


Although it is a concept car and will never reach production, this is a concept of greater significance than many 'dream machines' because it carries significant clues to the direction of BMW's future styling, both inside and out.
Although the exterior of a concept car is often what grabs attention, in the case of the Z9 Convertible the interior exposes the real revolution - it looks fresh, uncluttered and minimalist for the very simple reason that it is. Like the Z9 Gran Turismo shown at Frankfurt in September 1999, the Z9 Convertible is a technology carrier for BMW's trendsetting iDRIVE ergonomics - with the roof off it is now exposed for the world to see.

Bugatti

Bugatti

Description: Bugatti was founded in Molsheim, France as a manufacturer of high performance automobiles by Ettore Bugatti, an Italian man described as an eccentric genius. Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. is a German automobile manufacturer located in the French town of Molsheim, Alsace, France. It is a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group, and was founded in 1998 as... ( +expand to view full text )
Description: Bugatti was founded in Molsheim, France as a manufacturer of high performance automobiles by Ettore Bugatti, an Italian man described as an eccentric genius. Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. is a German automobile manufacturer located in the French town of Molsheim, Alsace, France. It is a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group, and was founded in 1998 as a successor to the legendary Bugatti company.

BMW Z9 (2000 - 2003) : DINGOLFINGER

BMW Z9 (2000 - 2003) : DINGOLFINGER

Its odd how the James Bond connection stays with some cars. The Aston Martin DB5, the Lotus Esprit and even cars like the Citroen 2CV all have the indelible stamp of 007 about them. To this list we can add the BMW Z8, a car manufactured at BMWs specialist Dingolfing factory and which featured in 1999s The World Is Not Enough. The car in the movie was a pre-production mock up which was just as well, as it got cut in half by a huge buzz saw.

Were it a genuine Z8, one suspects the saw blade would have bent. This is one well-built car, a fact to which a handful of lucky owners will doubtless attest. As a used proposition it makes an interesting case for itself.

BMW 6 Series

Models Covered: (2dr coupe, 2dr convertible, 3.0, 4.4, 5.0 petrol [M6])

BY ANDY ENRIGHT

After the furore caused by the controversial styling of the 5 Series, the launch later in 2003 of the 6 Series was virtually a low key event. Based on a modified 5 Series chassis, the Six offered a sleek coupe shape and was followed shortly thereafter by a Convertible version. Both cars are in strong demand, with few natural competitors. As a used buy, these cars are just starting to make sense, the earlier models having had the sharpest edge taken off the depreciation curve.